Wednesday is pretty low-key for me. My only class is my German Grammar course, which I am enjoying so far. I really like the professor. Although it's sometimes hard to understand him, I'm happy to be learning German grammar. Sometimes in class he asks us (myself, Clare, Matt) questions about how we learned the grammar, as we are non-native speakers and don't inherently know what sounds correct. At the end of class, he came up to us and said that if we are uncomfortable with him singling us out, to just inform him. He also asked us if we were all from England, and when I said that I wasn't, he was happy that there was a difference between us. He didn't say why he was glad, just that he was. He then asked us about the Oxford Comma and what the grammar rule is. He was also quite surprised when I said that there is a specific name for this comma. It was an interesting encounter. I went home and took a 3.5 hour nap, thus unable to go into town and accomplish what I had wanted.
Class on Thursday was as normal. In the evening I met Clare and Niall at the Hbf around 8pm. We went to the Irish pub in the Hbf while we waited for Marcella and Matt to arrive. Clare got the news that she got an awesome internship, so we wanted to celebrate with her. After the Irish pub, we went to a bar on Schillerplatz that a German friend of mine had recommended. While we were there, Kalle texted me inviting me to meet up with him at a pool hall. Clare, Marcella, Matt and Niall were all planning on going home after a drink, so I decided to take him up on his offer. The pool hall was an interesting place. Smoking was permitted inside. There was basically no ventilation, so the air was heavy with smoke. Kalle was there with two of his friends. One of them I had met before, the other I had not. I can't remember the girls name, as it was a very uncommon name, but I enjoyed talking to her. We talked about a lot of different topics, mostly in German, and she informed me that I spoke German well. She also originally asked me if I was from Canada, which I thought was funny. She asked me this before I had really said much to her, so I'm not sure what led her to believe I was from Canada. I got home around 2:30am. It was a fun night.
On Friday I decided to go and collect my Pfand. I'm not sure if I've explained it before, but Germany has a Pfand system. Most bottles here have Pfand on them, ranging from about 8 cents to 25. When you buy a plastic or glass bottle, the Pfand is included. When you bring the bottle back, they give the Pfand back. Anyways, I had about 3 euros in Pfand, and I also needed to go grocery shopping. Matt ended up coming with me, and we got a döner sandwich afterwards. Around 10:30pm I met up with Clare and Niall. We went to a "Polish Party" that was taking place in the bar of Clare's dorm. Marcella was already there and had been awaiting our arrival. We spent the night dancing and having fun. German's can't really dance well, so it's pretty funny to watch. I actually feel like I have some rhythm compared to them, and that's saying something. I'm not sure how to describe it, you'd just have to see it. I saw many people I knew there, including Max, Phillip, Simon, Matteo, Francesca, and then a bunch of people I loosely know from classes and such. Since it was a "Polish Party," they were serving Polish drinks and playing Polish music. I guess a popular Polish drink is apple juice and vodka, which is much better than it sounds. By the time we wanted to go home, it was around 2:45. Unfortunately, by this time none of the buses were running. I ended up walking home with Marcella and Frank (USA) for half the walk. When I was nearly home, a car stopped along side me and asked me for directions to the Autobahn. (Side note: most of the Autobahn isn't just a free for all. Many sections of it have a speed limit.) I had no idea, and they left. I finally got home around 3:45, roughly an hour after I left.
Today was a good, though tiring, day. I went to a local climbing gym with Joe in the afternoon. I'd never been climbing and he loves it, so he wanted to take me. We were there for at least an hour and half. It was a cool place. Afterwards, we went to get a burger. It almost tasted like home! Though I was tired and not in the mood to go out, I met Matt around 8 and we went to Christian and Jan's place. We were there for an hour and a half or so, and I met the rest of their roommates. There are five total, three guys and two girls. Around 10, they all left and headed to a party. I wasn't feeling it, so I just went home.
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